Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 43

Summary: - Complicity in an offense under Article 48 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and Trials. Its basis: agreement, incitement, or assistance. - Complicity by agreement is established through the unity of its parties’ intention to commit the agreed offense. Condition: its occurrence must be the fruit of that agreement. - Complicity by assistance. Condition for its establishment: proof that the accomplice intended to participate in the offense with knowledge thereof, intended to intervene with the perpetrator through deliberate intervention resonating with his act, and assisted in acts preparing for or facilitating its commission in a manner establishing the unity of the offense. Rule: It is established that complicity in an offense is not considered to exist, pursuant to the express wording of Article 48 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and Trials, unless it is proven against the accused that he agreed with the perpetrator to commit it, incited him to commit it, or assisted him with knowledge that he was about to do so. Complicity in an offense by agreement is established through the unity of its parties’ intention to commit a particular offense or offenses, whenever their occurrence is the fruit of that agreement. The law also requires an accomplice by assistance to have the intention to intervene with the perpetrator. Complicity by assistance is established only if it is proven that the accomplice intended to participate in the offense with knowledge thereof, by having the intention to intervene with the perpetrator through deliberate intervention resonating with his act, and by assisting in acts preparing for or facilitating its commission in a manner establishing the unity of the offense.